Ivanchuk wins World Blitz Championship, Moscow 2007

The first half of the Blitz Final had seen Vassily Ivanchuk in the lead, with Vishy Anand trailing two points behind in sixth place. The reigning World Champion, who said he had had a "bad day", came to the second half with new spirits, winning his first four games (against Carlsen, Morozevich, Shirov and Leko – the last as a revenge for a first-round loss). By round 29 Anand had caught Ivanchuk, and one round before the end both were still leading the field, each with 24.5 points, a point and a half adhead of the others. Everything was to be decided on the final game, in which the world's highest ranked player had white, against the world's second highest player (how much more exciting can it get?). Here is what transpired:

Anand,V (2801) - Ivanchuk,V (2787) [B42]
World Blitz Moscow RUS (38), 22.11.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.Be3 d6 9.N1d2 Nf6 10.f4 0-0 11.Bxa7 Rxa7 12.g4 b5 13.0-0-0 Rc7 14.Rhg1 Qe7 15.Kb1 Nd7 16.g5 Bb7 17.Rg3 Nb4 18.Rh3 g6 19.Qg4 Rfc8 20.Qh4 Nf8 21.a3 Nxd3 22.cxd3 h5 23.gxh6 Qxh4 24.Rxh4 Nh7 25.Nd4 Nf6 26.N2f3 Re8 27.Ng5 e5 28.fxe5 dxe5

Anand was at this point sensationally winning the world blitz championship. He was two pawns up and only needed to push the h-pawn to clinch it. Unfortunately he played: 29.Ndf3? Nh5 30.Rg1 Kh8 31.Nh3 Bc8 32.Nf2 Nf4 33.Nxe5 Ne2 34.Re1 Nd4

35.Neg4?? This is going to haunt Anand's dreams for a while.35...Nf3 36.Nf6 Rd8 37.Nd5 Rb7 0-1.

In the above video you see the start of the game, then the move 17...Nb4, then the section after the queen exchange: from 23...Qxh4 until 29...Nh5. The final section shows Anand resigning after 36...Rd8 37.Nd5 Rb7.

Final Standings (38 rounds)

• Click for a full cross table of the World Blitz Championship
• Official World Blitz Championship web site
• All games in zipped PGN